Diego the Dragon Says Hey
by Ray by Another Name
Summary: Jason wakes up with a dragon, Dick finds out his lover is alive, and Damian is grumpy. So really, nothing new. Royalty AU. Written for the JayDick Summer Exchange 2019 on Ao3.


Jason wakes up with a dragon, Dick finds out his lover is alive, and Damian is grumpy. So really, nothing new. Royalty AU.

Written for the JayDick Summer Exchange 2019 on Ao3.

Prompt from Gaygent37: Something fairytale-esque. Can be royalty AU, dragons, magic, evil witch, a fairy tale rewrite, anything that meets your fancy in that sense. (Would love to have some major Damian sass, especially if commenting on Dick/Jason's relationship, but don't feel pressured.)

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**Diego the Dragon Says Hey  
**

There's a dragon skull sitting beside him when he wakes up. Jason blinks at it a few times as he raises his head from the dirt. The pounding behind his eyes intensifies the further he pulls from the ground until eventually, when he's sitting straight up, his vision is invaded by splitting light and dancing fire.

The dragon skull is still there when his vision clears.

"I'm gonna call you Diego." The skull does not respond as Jason pushes himself onto his feet. He glances around the cave he's in. Save Diego, there's nothing much – some dirt, some sand, a lake of green water that he definitely doesn't want to drink from. "So…you wouldn't happen to know where we are, would you?" Diego does not grace him with an answer. "Alright, then, be that way."

Jason does a quick inventory. It's quick mostly because all of his stuff is missing. His sword, his armor, most of his clothes. He decides to be grateful for his pants and then investigate the immediate area.

Diego, he discovers, was once a very large dragon. His largest fang was nearly as tall as Jason. Given the lack of sticks and stones and swords in the cave, Jason makes the very sound decision to pull out one of the dragon's smaller teeth to use as a potential weapon. Diego does not agree with this reasoning.

"Give. Me. The Tooth!" Jason pulls hard, feet firmly planted on the dragon's upper jaw as he pulls downward on the sharp tooth. "Damn it Diego, I need it more than you do!" Jason growls before his grip gives out and he falls onto the ground outside the dragon's mouth. He huffs. A sudden clatter alerts him just before a tooth slams into the ground beside him.

It's the one next to the one he'd been pulling on.

"You're kind of a dick," Jason tells the dragon as he stands up to inspect his new weapon. It's long enough to be a longsword and wide enough to be a broadsword. Given the lack of a hilt, Jason thinks it will make a great club. "Thanks, Diego."

The dragon remains stoic as Jason departs to find a way out of the cave, but Jason knows he'll be missed!

-.-.-  
Dick wakes before the sun in a cold sweat that tells him the day is going to be absolutely wretched. His dark hair sticks to his forehead in immediate rebellion. He refuses to take that lying down so he gets up. He pulls on a light shirt and laces up his boots to go down to the training yard. It is, blessedly, empty.

"Take that, nightmares," Dick murmurs to himself as he begins running through a few drills to warm up. The day is going to be a good one, whether it likes it or not! Dick moves through the air like a bird, sword swinging with grace as he slashes at imaginary enemies.

So enthralled in his practice is he that Dick doesn't notice when someone else joins him on the field. His blade stops just before Tim's chest as he slashes across. Tim doesn't flinch, or even blink, at the unsharpened blade. Blue eyes stare directly into Dick's own, "The Oracle sent me a message."

Dick is breathing heavily – more so from nearly injuring Gotham's best wizard than from his actual exertions. He takes a steading breath as he straightens, "What does she say?" Tim's lips quirk up and Dick instinctively steps back. Tim might be smaller and shorter than Dick, but he is decidedly more deadly.

"Jason is alive."

The dulled sword in Dick's hand drops to the ground with a clatter.

-.-.-

Damian has absolutely no idea what's going on. Absolutely none.

"Do you have any questions, your majesty?" Stephanie asks as she walks two steps behind her young king. He's walked through most of the castle at this point and will likely soon venture into Gotham itself.

"No," Damian states the word confidently, nose in the air and arms crossed. Stephanie smiles, but continues following her charge as he searches – fruitlessly – for his regent. Not that Damian had told Stephanie what he's doing, but his 'review of castle infrastructure' had started in the castle's training yard and then Dick's private chambers.

Sometimes, kings were just oblivious. Thirteen-year-old kings especially.

It said a lot that the last place Damian went was the throne room. It says even more when he growls at the throne. "Where is he?!" Damian spins around to face Stephanie, eyes narrowed to slits and lips pushed out in what was probably the cutest pout Steph had ever seen on his face.

"Who?" Stephanie purses her lips to keep from laughing, or cooing, at Damian. She fails immediately when he stomps his foot. "Ser Richard left this morning, if that's who you're looking for. Lord Drake went with him." Damian immediately flushes.

"No!" Damian's eyes shift left. Stephanie follows his gaze towards the small council's room. "Shouldn't I have been informed of something like that though?"

Stephanie shrugs, "Probably." No one ever really bothered to tell Damian much of anything around here – he was young and still fairly new to Gotham after all. "But Dick was in a hurry, so he probably forgot."

"Why was he in a hurry?" Damian took the three steps up the dais to sit in the throne. He shifts on the cold stone, fingers fidgeting on and off the arm rests. Stephanie watches him. His brow is scrunched up and he bites at his lips each time he moves.

She debates her answer for half a moment, "They went to get Jason."

"Jason?" Damian's head shoots up and now his eyes are wide. Stephanie takes a moment to appreciate the slack-jawed look on Damian's face. He shakes it off quickly, "I thought my father's squire perished in the flames?"

"That's what we all thought," Stephanie sighs. Her smile tightens, "The Oracle says he's not though." Damian's brow furrows again and he worries his lip between his teeth. "Is something wrong, your majesty?"

Damian pushes off from the throne and takes quick steps down. He doesn't even come up to Stephanie's shoulders when he stops at her toes to look up at her face, "Where did they go to retrieve him?" Stephanie blinks at the intensity of his gaze.

"The Cave of the Demon."

-.-.-

Jason finds the mouth of the cave and immediately swears. The only thing outside of the cave is more dirt. No trees. No roads. No town. Nothing. Not even a mountain! He wracks his brain for something (anything!) that might tell him where he is. Bruce made him study every damn map he could – it's only fair that such useless studying become useful in his hour of need.

He's cycling through a few possibilities when he returns to Diego, "Hey, buddy. Anything interesting happen while I was gone?" The dragon gives him the cold shoulder. Jason freezes as a legend on one of Bruce's maps hits him right in the face. He glares up at Diego, "You couldn't have told we were in the Cave of the Demon earlier?"

Diego kept his mouth firmly open. Just like the dragon skull on Bruce's map that indicated this cave. Jason eyed the green lake a little more anxiously now.

"Was I dead?" Jason look up at Diego, tried to imagine what his own body would look like as a skeleton. He plopped down beside the dragon, leaning back against his lower jaw. Jason tried to recall where he was last before he got here, but came up only with a splitting headache and image of fire. "I think I can rule out hell, but that's all I got."

The bones of Diego pressed firmly into his back felt kind of comforting, not that Jason would admit to needing such comfort. A flash of blue cut through his headache and an image bubbled up. A tourney. A man with a blue cape riding on a black mare, a wooden jousting lance in his hand. Eyes that sparkled like sapphires visible beneath the helm.

"You think anyone is looking for me, Diego?"

-.-.-

Dick follows behind Cassandra by several yards. Her horse was just as quiet as she was and the two made for an excellent scout. They'd already run into the three hosts of bandits and Dick was getting sort of impatient at this point. "How much longer?"

"The Cave of the Demon is on the edge of Gotham's territory," Tim huffs out beside him as he readjusts himself on his saddle. "You didn't expect us to get there in a day, did you?"

Dick didn't look at the wizard – his red robes were already tattered on the bottom from their ridding and given the way he was fidgeting Dick was sure the man had a nasty case of saddle sores in his immediate future. He shouldn't complain, but…

"We're not far from the cave," Tim sighs. Dick perks up and Tim rolls his eyes. As if the gods themselves are trying to suck up to Dick, Cassandra signals for them to ride closer. They reach her just as she dismounts before the only outcropping for miles.

"So…" Dick looks at the mouth of the cave and then around at the terrain. Desert and deserted, "Not what I expected." Tim shoves him into the cave with all the patience of a honey badger as Cassandra waves them in.

-.-.-

"Jason!"

The voice wakes him from a dead sleep and Jason immediately swings out with his dragon tooth. A yelp and some dust in his mouth tell him the person was not expecting that.

"That was mean, Jay."

Jason's eyes blink open and he comes face to face with the sapphire eyes from his memories. His face flushes as his eyes flick down to the man's lips – which are currently puckered out in a pout that is doing absolutely nothing for Jason's concentration.

"Do you recognize us?" Another voice and another face. Jason squints at it, feels a desire to shove the man bubble up in his chest.

Jason shrugs, "Recognize, yes." Jason squints harder at the second man. He's lanky, wearing loose-fitting robes, and carrying the dullest expression, "Have you drank any coffee today, Timmy?" Tim's eyes widen and his lips quirk up.

When he turns to face the first man again, everything else floods in.

"Miss me, Dick?" Jason smirks.

Dick responds by pulling him close with one hand and threading the other into Jason's tussled locks. Dick's lips slot over his like a puzzle piece and Jason's hands dig into the fabric of Dick's cape until Tim, very loudly, clears his throat.

Jason shoves his shoulder, "Don't be rude, Timmy, we're busy." Dick chuckles into the side of Jason's head. He's wrapped himself completely around the taller, and broader, man. Jason's body relaxes into the hold. "So…where's Bruce?"

Both Tim and Dick immediately tense. Jason raises a brow.

-.-.-

Damian settles himself atop the gate just as he has the last three mornings. Guards walk behind him as they move from tower to tower and Stephanie sits beside him between two merlons in an embrasure. It's not comfortable, but Stephanie has left her plate armor behind today so it's not as bad as it was the day before.

"Are we just going to sit up here every day until they get back?" Stephanie whines, head lulling to the side as she looks at him. Damian stiffens, but nods. "You do realize you're the king? Don't you have…kingly duties or something?"

"Kate's handling everything," Damian grunts and turns his head to stare out at the horizon. "I will continue my lessons when Dick returns." Stephanie rolls her eyes.

The small council would probably be more receptive to Damian after this, she figures. Kate Kane is, by far, the most ruthless of the Waynes by even the most generous of scales. Stephanie straightens her back and scans the area – the guards are rotating as they should, merchants are filtering through the gate.

"It's only a day and a half to the cave," Damian says after a long silence. Stephanie looks at him, but he's still staring at the horizon. She reaches out, pats his arm. He glances in her direction.

"I've spent years training with Cassandra, and I've seen Dick in action, Tim too." She smiles at him and Damian looks down at his lap. "They're perfectly fine out there, Dami." His head pops back up at the use of Dick's nickname for him.

Damian opens his mouth, ready to shout his bodyguard into propriety, but no sound comes out. His had snaps to the horizon as a flicker of movement catches his eyes.

"Told ya." Stephanie hums as she scoots off the embrasure and stands in the center of the wall's walk. She holds out a hand to Damian. He takes it with a scowl. She pulls him along as she moves down into the courtyard.

Rather than rush to the gate, Damian makes a move toward the castle (and the throne room). Stephanie's hold on his hand tightens and the two are standing dead center in the courtyard when Dick rides in with Cass, Tim, and a man with scraggly hair.

"Why did you bring home a beggar?" Damian isn't looking at Dick when he asks, but at Jason. Jason glances down at the make-shift clothes they'd cobbled together for him.

Dick's mouth is already open to reprimand Damian when Jason starts laughing, "That's not bad, kid, but I know a dragon named Diego that could do better without saying a word." Jason watches the boy's eye twitch and nods at Dick, "So this is Bruce's kid?"

"Unfortunately," Tim grunts as he drops from his horse. Damian growls at the wizard as he passes him. He gives Stephanie a quick wave and then disappears to report to the Oracle.

"Be nice, Dami," Dick sighs as he dismounts his mare. Damian's face is set in a series of lines as he looks at them. When he moves to hug the boy he backs away from him. Stephanie holds his shoulders and Dick looks up at her. She tilts her head expectantly and nods down at Damian. "Wha-?"

Jason cackles from beside him, "I think she's trying to say you worried the kid and should apologize." Dick furrows his brow when Stephanie nods. Damian scoffs.

"I wasn't worried," Damian's chin rises in the air as he looks at Jason's neck – spotted with circular bruises. "Obviously he spent more time canoodling than fighting." Dick flushes red. Damian's eyes land on the weapon that Jason is holding in his hand. His eye twitches again. "You took a dragon's tooth?"

"Diego was already dead when he gave this to me," Jason leans over to smirk directly into Damian's face. He eyes the small king carefully – pinpoints every emotion hiding in Damian's expression, "Jealous?"

Damian sniffs, looks away, "Of someone like you? Never." Behind him, Stephanie rolls her eyes again. Dick glances back and forth between Damian and Jason as they take verbal swipes at each other. His eyes widen in growing panic.

"No!" Dick steps between the two and he holds a finger up to both their faces. "Bickering is not bonding." Damian and Jason both snort. "I want you two to get along!"

"I am not bonding with one of your bedfellows!" Damian's nose scrunches up as he turns away. Stephanie is kind of impressed he didn't stomp his foot this time. "I have far more pressing responsibilities!"

Jason's brow rises up as Damian stalks back into the castle. His green cape flutters out behind him quite spectacularly. Stephanie swipes at the material as she follows two steps behind.

"You really should have told Dami you were leaving before you went, Dick," Stephanie calls over her shoulder. A quick glance, a wink, and Dick's mouth falls open as she laughs at him.

"So…" Jason crosses his arms as he comes up beside Dick, "How many 'bedfellows' do you have exactly?" Inside the castle walls, Damian quirks a smile when he hears Dick's sputtering.

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